Edinburgh 45-10 Treviso: Win for caretaker Duncan Hodge

Edinburgh's Tom Brown (centre) breaks through from Treviso's Benvenuti Tommaso (right) and Buondonno Andrea. Picture: SNS

Hodge paid tribute to his troops after they registered a first bonus-point win of the season and got back to winning ways a week-and-a-half after Alan Solomons stepped down as head coach.

Two tries each from wingers Damien Hoyland and Tom Brown, plus scores from Hamish Watson, Magnus Bradbury and Blair Kinghorn, allied to ten points from the boot of the impressive Jason Tovey, brought some much-needed positivity back to BT Murrayfield, although tougher tests lie ahead on the road to the top half of the table.

Hodge said: “It’s been a tough five, six weeks and they’ve not stopped working. To score seven tries at home was good. We owed people a performance and I think the players and the coaches, we all feel expectation. It’s just nice to reward some hard work and the fans.”

With the Italian clubs caught in a worrying backward slide over the past few seasons, a win at home over a side who came into the match with an opening record as bad as the hosts was fully expected.

Such expectation can make these kind of games no-win situations against physical and stuffy opponents, but things could barely have got off to a better start as Edinburgh forged into a 14-0 lead inside eight minutes. First a ball squirted out of the ruck straight into the hands of right wing Hoyland, who saw clear green ahead of him and burned home from well inside his own half, stand-off Tovey converting.

An even healthier lead on the scoreboard was soon forthcoming as a well worked move saw openside Watson take possession for a second time when he took centre Chris Dean’s inside pop then broke some weak tackling to charge over and the Welshman again adding the extras.

The former Scotland Under-20 stand-off Tommaso Allan pegged back three points for Treviso to bring the opening quarter to a close but Edinburgh responded eight minutes later as Dean got his second assist of the night and Hoyland his second try as the winger got over again in the right for an unconverted score.

The shackles were off now, quite literally as Bradbury shrugged off the attentions of several Treviso tacklers then showed impressive pace to power down the right flank and his momentum took him over after being caught by a despairing last-ditch challenge. Tovey converted and, bonus point in the bag, Edinburgh were 26-3 to the good.

There was a slack start to the second period as Marco Fuser was allowed to get a try back for Treviso but normal service was soon resumed as Brown scored in the left corner and Tovey converted to keep the Italians under the pump.

The Welshman’s deft cossfield kick was collected well by Brown for his brace and  Kinghorn’s stoppage-time try completed the scoring.